It started to get worrisome around 3 months or so ago.

I developed a bit of asthma in my teen years, so once I went to college I would take a puff of it during strenuous activities. Running around didn't usually bother me that much unless I was multitasking like playing basketball or sword fighting.

My mom had explained to me that I needed to take it easy when I would get frustrated with my breathlessness.

"Connie, asthma is something a lot of people have. It doesn't make you lazy or weak, it just means your lungs don't quite function like some other peoples. It's not uncommon either, stop being so hard on yourself, doctors orders." She lectured.

Eventually, I learned to coexist with it as a medical condition and not something that made me frail. I could still kick any Holo-Pearls ass, and Stevens too. We'd spar for hours until we were soaked in sweat and tears from giggling so much.

Life was as close to perfect as I could ask for.

Then came the day my mom commented on my breathing. "Connie, are you feeling okay? Have you taken your inhaler?"

"Why?" I raised an eyebrow and she furrowed hers back.

"You're wheezing and clicking." She said, putting on her coat. "Come on, we're going to get a nebulizer treatment."

My mom and her nurse tried three consecutive medications to ease my lungs into loosening up. By then I could feel my fingers and toes tingling with pins and needles. Things had never been this bad before.

Finally they gave me lidocaine through a nebulizer treatment that calmed things down by numbing it. After that incident, things went back to being normal for awhile.

Two weeks ago, I was driving home from work on a Saturday when I started to feel a bit of pain in my chest. It was early and I had a long drive since it was an out of state job, so I decided to pull over and take a nap. An hour later I woke up with the feeling of being suffocated and sat up straight with sheer panic.

I took deep breaths and winced at the pain, it was obvious something was very wrong right then and there so I called a nurse line and told them my symptoms as I was around an hour and a half away from home.

"Ms. Mahashwaren, based on your symptoms I'm going to strongly recommend that you pull over and call 911 immediately."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh gosh, does it sound that serious?"

I could hear the nurses chair squeak in the background and her typing rapidly. "Well, I can't diagnose you over the phone but it's important that you get off the road. If you pass out at the wheel you could end up really hurting someone or yourself very badly."

I bit the inside of my lip. She had a point.

I glanced at the gps, I still had another hour and 10 minutes left. The pain was ebbing a bit, and my streak of stubborn kicked in. I could make it home before I did anything hasty.

"Alright, well thank you very much." As annoyed as I was, she had been incredibly helpful and kind.

"My pleasure. I hope you start feeling better soon dear."

By the time I pulled into the driveway of the house, I felt like my heart was being squeezed by an invisible fist. My whole chest had began to ache, specifically between my shoulder blades and the middle of my chest between my breasts.

Mom noticed my expression and after telling her what the nurse had told me she gave me a searing glare. "Connie Aashna Mahaswaren you go sit in the car this instant, young lady."

I didn't argue, I knew I was going to get quite the lecture and I squirmed in my seat like a 13 year old suspendee. Mom couldn't ground me, but she sure could rip me a few new ones.

And boy did she.

"How could you possibly think it was okay to continue driving?! It's irresponsible at best, I thought I had raised my daughter to have more sense than this reckless kind of behavior. And I thought swords were the problem." She merged into the lane next to us and continued. "What if you had gotten in an accident Connie? How would I or your father have known? You could've been killed and to think you would just..."

Her voice faded as the pain in my chest grew suddenly and I gripped the door handle tightly. My ears began to ring and I pushed out a shallow, strained breath, beads of sweat beginning to roll down my forehead.

"Connie?"

I turned my head to look at her and my head felt like it filled with helium. Everything looked incredibly hazy and brightly colored. My mom spoke again but I was distracted by the halo distorting her face. "I think I'm gonna pass out." I mumbled.

When I woke up I was in the ER. I moved to sit up but yelped in shock at the slight tug of an IV in my bicep. "I hate needles."

I distracted my mind by acquainting myself with my surroundings. The room was completely empty and silent, save for the distant sound of voices and monitors beeping. The walls were covered in posters prompting people to get flu shots and cancer screenings, and a whiteboard with my name written neatly on top. I had Nurse Faratu apparently. It took me a good moment to snicker at the unfortunate coincidence of a name.

The door opened just as I was calming back down to reveal a short, pale nurse with jet black hair braided down to her waist. "Hi there, I'm Nurse Feratu," she said with an indiscernible accent. I must have smirked a little because she chuckled. "Yes I know. I became a nurse just for that reason, very funny. Now tell me in your own words why you're here."

I reexplained everything that had happened to her and she scribbled on the clipboard with a concerned expression. She excused herself and I sat back and closed my eyes. I hadn't been to the ER in years I felt a swift stabbing between my shoulder blades and cried out involuntarily.

Nurse Feratu came in immediately and frowned. "I'll ask the doctor to order you some pain killers."

"My mom?"

"Of course." She stepped out again and I reached for the bedside tray table, making sure to text Steven that I was in the hospital before the pain killers made me loopy.

He responded immediately with a barrage of questions and I couldn't help but smile through the pain. I gave him the address of where I was and set the phone down just as a new nurse returned with a vial of pain medicine.

"This shouldn't hurt at all. Take a deep breath though, it may exacerbate your breathlessness if you're experiencing any. You may also feel a bit of panic, rest assured it's just the medicine taking hold. It passes quickly."

She cleansed my IV with saline and chased it with a cloudy liquid. Almost immediately I felt my body respond as it flowed directly into my veins. I did clench my fist for a moment, trying to control the fear I was suddenly feeling with my entire being. Soon, it began to feel warm and comfortable as the pain eased up quite a bit but not completely.

"How's that, Ms. Mahaswaren?"

I turned to her and smiled softly, nodding my approval.

She left and I was alone again, lazily looking around the room until my eyes settled on the paintings in front of me. It was supposed to make the hospital seem less sterile and cold, but I wrinkled my nose. They were... ugly. Completely and dreadfully ugly.  I almost couldn't get past it, they were awful and just as bland as the hospital room itself.

The door opened what seemed like only a few moments later, lightly startling me from my slumber.

"How would you rate your pain, Connie?" I slowly opened my eyes to see my mother standing over me, concern etched into her expression despite her professional tone.

"Like, a 3?"

My mother had barely opened her mouth to respond before we both heard commotion outside the door.

A familiar voice with a sharp edge was murmuring in the hallway as the nurses seemingly tried to console them.

"It's not an option." They said.

A nurse began to speak up but abruptly stopped and sighed. "Alright. Right this way."

A knock at the door caused my mother to furrow her brow with irritation. "Don't let your boyfriend distract you, Connie. This is serious."

Steven all but pushed his way in with barely a nod toward my mother before he pulled up a seat and gently grabbed my hand. "Go on, Mrs. Mahaswaren. I don't mean to be a distraction at all."

He squeezed my hand sweetly and I grinned for a second before answering the rest of my moms prying questions. "Connie, what were you doing when this all started? You've never had issues like this exerting yourself before, it doesn't make any sense."

"I was just driving. Work wasn't particularly strenuous or anything either. It was a normal trip." I assured.

She frowned further. "I'm going to have them give you a CT scan with contrast, the pain could becoming from a pulmonary embolism or a blood clot in your lung."

Steven inhaled sharply and squeezed my hand almost hard enough that it hurt.

"Thankfully Steven," she gave him a comforting smile, "A pulmonary embolism is almost never fatal and usually only is for already medically frail people. Connie was in near perfect health before this, so she will be perfectly fine."

Steven nodded tightly. "Well that's good! If it's that, we can hopefully fix it, right?"

My mom nodded. "Of course, we'll start testing right away. I'll give you two time to chat."

She left us alone and Steven gave me a kiss, a pained expression breaking through. "Please be okay."

"I will be. I promise."